Raffles, the definitive biography.

Title :- Raffles, the definitive biography

By :- Maurice Collis

Published :- Graham Brash (Pte) Ltd, Singapore – paperback 1966 – 2000 (200 pages)

Outline :- This biography tends to look at Raffles the man, his marriage, children along with his career & friends. Some career aspects include his maneuvering to develop and maintain favor with the British East Indies company & British royalty.

Some interesting notes:

• In 1811 Java is reported to have 5 million people.
• Java (and thus much of Indonesia) was managed by the French for about 2 years when Napoleon conquered Holland. The French only sent some top figures, and used selected leading Dutch administrators to implement their rule. Raffles planed & headed to military take over of Java, wherein he established recognition with the Indonesian princely leaders and thus the limited Dutch garrison had no back up. After the British defeated Napoleon, Indonesia was handed back to the Dutch, to maintain alliances in Europe. This stimulated Raffles to “create” Singapore.

Raffles was clearly a leader of his era, developing botanical gardens, collecting specimens for museums, and author of scholarly works on Indonesia. He was knighted for such works.